On the Evidence

On this episode, guests Tosin Shenbanjo, Julie Sanon, and Allison Holmes discuss a cross-sector partnership in Memphis, Tennessee, that infused equity into a local nonprofit’s two-generation strategy for alleviating poverty and supporting families. Sanon is the chief operating officer at Agape Child & Family Services in Memphis. Holmes is a senior research associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Shenbanjo is a researcher at Mathematica. They share lessons from a collaboration between Agape, Casey, and Mathematica to implement equity-infused rapid-cycle learning at Agape, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of the nonprofit’s programs that serve children and families. A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://mathematica.org/blogs/supporting-families-through-equity-infused-program-change Read the guide developed by Mathematica and the Annie E. Casey Foundation to help human services providers continuously improve their programs through equitable, collaborative, and innovative approaches: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/championing-change-a-practitioner-guide-for-leading-inclusive-and-equity-infused-rapid-cycle Learn more about the partnership between Agape Child & Family Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Mathematica to implement and refine Agape’s place-based, two-generation programs that support children and their families: https://mathematica.org/projects/support-for-agape-child-and-family-services-2gen-model Read a report from Agape Child & Family Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Mathematica about Agape’s experience with adapting two of its 2Gen programs in the face of pandemic-related service disruptions: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/learning-to-adapt-helping-agape-child-and-family-services-use-rapid-cycle-learning-to-drive

On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, we look at a potential solution to two concerns in K–12 education during the pandemic: student learning loss and teacher burnout. The conversation builds on a national study from Mathematica and the Institute of Education Sciences on a form of individualized, video-based teacher coaching, which improved student achievement. Our guests for this episode include a teacher (Nicole Minor), a teacher coach (Michelle Schmidt), and a Mathematica researcher who studied the impacts of teacher coaching (Jeffrey Max). Find the full transcript here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/video-based-coaching-offers-potential-solution-to-student-learning-loss-and-teacher-burnout Read a press release summarizing findings from Mathematica’s study for the Institute of Education Sciences about the impacts of teacher coaching on student achievement: https://mathematica.org/news/new-report-finds-student-test-scores-improved-after-teachers-received-individualized-video-based Read the full report from Mathematica and the Institute of Education Sciences on the impacts of teacher coaching on student achievement: https://mathematica.org/publications/study-of-teacher-coaching-based-on-classroom-videos-impacts-on-student-achievement-and-teachers

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast looks at proven ways to help job seekers with low incomes during economic recessions and recoveries. Guests Tyreese Nicolas, Kimberly Clum, and Alex Stanczyk share insights from the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse, a publicly available website about interventions designed to help job seekers with low incomes. They also discuss what the evidence says about the effectiveness of these interventions. Nicolas served as an assistant director of employment services at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance for four years and recently became the Deputy Commissioner of Family Access and Engagement in the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. Clum is a senior social science research analyst with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. Stanczyk is a researcher at Mathematica, where she focuses on public policies and programs that serve individuals and families that face social or economic disadvantage. A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/helping-job-seekers-with-low-incomes-during-economic-recessions-and-recoveries Explore the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse: https://pathwaystowork.acf.hhs.gov/ Read the evidence review from Mathematica and OPRE on what works during economic recessions and recoveries to help workers with low incomes: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/remediated-pathways_recession_brief_revised-jh.pdf

Every year, early-career scholars join Mathematica for a summer to work on independent research related to improving public well-being. As prospective applicants weigh whether to submit an application by the Feb. 28 deadline for the 2023 Summer Fellowship program, Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast spoke with last year’s fellows (Jennifer Kirk, Katherine Engel, and Adrienne Jones) about their experience working with Mathematica staff, the policy implications of their research, why they’re interested in applied research, and what they plan to do after defending their dissertations. Learn more about the Mathematica Summer Fellowship, which is accepting applications for 2023 fellows through the end of February: https://mathematica.org/career-opportunities/summer-fellowships A full transcript of the conversation is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/using-evidence-to-reduce-racial-disparities-in-bone-health-improve-mental-health-and-support-self Listen to our interviews with the 2021 summer fellows: https://mathematica.org/blogs/a-conversation-with-mathematicas-2021-summer-fellows Listen to our interviews with the 2020 summer fellows: https://mathematica.org/blogs/examining-racial-disparities-in-school-discipline-and-mental-health-care Listen to our interviews with the 2019 summer fellows: https://mathematica.org/blogs/what-the-next-generation-of-policy-researchers-is-studying

Princeton professor Matthew Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit, explores the merging worlds of computer science and social science for timely, policy relevant research in the 21st century. In the book, he shows how traditional research techniques in the social sciences can sometimes be combined with digital tools and big data to generate high-quality evidence on a larger scale, in less time, and at a much lower cost. On the five-year anniversary of his book’s release, Salganik, who is also a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors, spoke with On the Evidence about the book’s legacy and the evolution of the field of computational social science since he first taught a course on the subject in 2007. A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/princetons-matthew-salganik-discusses-the-evolving-intersection-of-data-and-social-science-ethics Read a free online version of Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit: https://www.bitbybitbook.com/en/1st-ed/preface/ Attend a virtual book talk on February 7, 2023 about Bit by Bit, including a Q&A with the author, hosted by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dc-aapor-book-club-20-bit-by-bit-social-research-in-the-digital-age-tickets-487575530537 Listen to a previous On the Evidence episode about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS, which features Salganik: https://mathematica.org/blogs/inside-an-initiative-to-diversify-the-field-of-computational-social-science Learn more about the Howard-Mathematica SICSS: https://mathematica.org/news/howard-university-and-mathematica-to-host-computational-social-science-summer-institute Watch Salganik give a Tedx talk at Princeton University about the tension between ready-made data (big data) and custom-made data (with which social scientists usually work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pj95xXHN2g Learn more about Salganik and his appointment in 2018 as a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors: https://mathematica.org/news/matthew-salganik-appointed-to-mathematicas-board-of-directors

On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, guests Michael A. Becketts, Tracy Wareing Evans, Shavana Howard, and Matt Stagner make the case for state and local human services agencies to play a central role in the response to climate change. Becketts is the director of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services; Wareing Evans is the President and Chief Executive Officer at American Public Human Services Association; Howard is an assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services; and Stagner is a vice president at Mathematica. They explain how the field of human services is uniquely positioned to support communities that will be disproportionately harmed by climate change and they identify ways that social science research and other forms of evidence can help develop solutions to environmental injustice. Additional resources mentioned on the episode, plus a full transcript of the conversation, are available here: mathematica.org/blogs/the-role-of-human-services-in-securing-environmental-justice

For the final episode of 2022, we continue our annual tradition of inviting guests to reflect on Mathematica’s work with its partners in advancing equity, addressing the climate crisis, improving public well-being, and the role that evidence played in it. This year’s guests are Nancy Murray, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm, who oversee Mathematica’s International, Human Services, and Health business units, respectively. On the episode, they discuss the following topics: • Where they see signs of progress in the use of evidence • The increasingly important role of evidence in understanding and addressing inequities • Reasons to be optimistic about the growing use of evidence in improving people’s lives in 2023 A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/advancing-equity-and-addressing-the-climate-crisis-in-2022-the-year-of-evidence-for-action Mathematica's year-in-review page for 2022 is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/features/from-inquiry-to-insight-in-2022

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Abigail Aiken, the 22nd recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize. In Part 1, as part of her acceptance speech at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management’s fall research conference, Aiken shares details about her personal and professional journey as a researcher in the area of evidence-based reproductive health policy. Listen to Part 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/ontheevidence/informing-reproductive-health-policies-with-timely-evidence-episode-83-part-1 A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/abigail-aiken-on-using-research-to-inform-abortion-reproductive-health-policy In Part 2, Aiken talks with On the Evidence host J.B. Wogan about how she ensures that her research informs the policy debate, even on a polarizing topic like abortion. Read the New Yorker profile of Aiken: www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/w…ortion-look-like Learn more about the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: www.appam.org/about-appam/awards…d-n-kershaw-award/ Listen to an interview with Sanya Carley, winner of the 21st David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: mathematica.org/blogs/understandi…-policy-decisions Listen to an interview with Kirabo Jackson, winner of the 20th David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: mathematica.org/blogs/investing-i…s-in-the-long-run

The latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Abigail Aiken, the 22nd recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize. In Part 1, as part of her acceptance speech at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management’s fall research conference, Aiken shares details about her personal and professional journey as a researcher in the area of evidence-based reproductive health policy. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/abigail-aiken-on-using-research-to-inform-abortion-reproductive-health-policy In Part 2, Aiken talks with On the Evidence host J.B. Wogan about how she ensures that her research informs the policy debate, even on a polarizing topic like abortion. Listen to Part 2 here: https://soundcloud.com/ontheevidence/informing-reproductive-health-policies-with-timely-evidence-episode-83-part-2 Read the New Yorker profile of Aiken: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-does-an-at-home-abortion-look-like Learn more about the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: https://www.appam.org/about-appam/awards/david-n-kershaw-award/ Listen to an interview with Sanya Carley, winner of the 21st David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: mathematica.org/blogs/understanding-the-equity-and-justice-dimensions-of-energy-policy-decisions Listen to an interview with Kirabo Jackson, winner of the 20th David N. Kershaw Award and Prize: mathematica.org/blogs/investing-in-education-for-success-in-the-long-run

Climate change represents the single most significant policy challenge in the 21st century. It is a multifaceted and global threat to society that affects a range of concerns, from the environment and food security to health and economic inequality. Recognizing the urgency of the threat, Mathematica recently established a climate change practice to help develop innovative and sustainable solutions that meet ambitious reduction goals for carbon dioxide emissions while helping vulnerable communities become more resilient. On this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Tulika Narayan, the company’s vice president for climate change, talks about how data and evidence can help confront the climate crisis and mitigate its manifold impacts on society. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/confronting-the-climate-crisis-with-data-and-evidence Register for the webinar on measuring climate resilience: https://www.mathematica.org/events/improving-climate-adaptation-is-measurement-a-barrier Learn more about Mathematica’s interdisciplinary climate change practice: https://mathematica.org/sp/climate-change/climate-action Learn more about Tulika's appointment as Vice President for Climate Change at Mathematica: mathematica.org/news/mathematica-names-tulika-narayan-new-vice-president-for-climate-change

On this episode of On the Evidence, Don Berwick of the National Academy of Medicine’s Climate Collaborative, Tom DiLiberto of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Aparna Keshaviah of Mathematica explore the risks that climate change and extreme heat pose to human health and how data can help inform solutions. A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/addressing-the-harmful-effects-of-climate-change-on-extreme-heat-and-human-health Learn more about ClimaWATCH, an interactive online tool that can support communities seeking to understand and adapt to the local effects of heat waves on their residents’ health: https://mathematica.org/publications/climawatch-tool Learn more about Mathematica’s interdisciplinary climate change practice: https://mathematica.org/sp/climate-change/climate-action Learn more about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s work over the past five years with more than 65 communities to map urban heat islands and use data-driven insights to mitigate the harmful and inequitable effects of extreme heat: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-and-communities-to-map-heat-inequities-in-14-us-cities-and-counties Learn more about the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector: https://nam.edu/programs/climate-change-and-human-health/action-collaborative-on-decarbonizing-the-u-s-health-sector/

This episode of On the Evidence explores lessons from contact tracing for COVID-19 that should inform current and future efforts to rebuild the public health field, particularly its workforce, after the public health emergency ends. This episode features the following guests: • Elinor Higgins, a policy associate at the National Academy for State Health Policy • Shelley Fiscus, a pediatrician and senior policy consultant at the National Academy for State Health Policy • Rachel Brash, a strategist in the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development who helped oversee the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative • Shan-Tia Danielle, who worked as a contact tracer and led a team of contact tracers for the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership • Candace Miller, a principal researcher at Mathematica who directed the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership • Shaun Stevenson, an advisory services analyst at Mathematica who supported the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative Episode transcript: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/charting-a-course-for-public-health-based-on-lessons-from-contact-tracing-during-the-pandemic Learn more about the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership between the Washington State Department of Health, Mathematica, Comagine Health, and Allegis: https://mathematica.org/news/mathematica-partners-with-comagine-health-allegis-and-washington-state-on-contact-tracing Read Mathematica’s interim (https://mathematica.org/publications/baltimore-health-corps-initiative-a-transitional-jobs-program-to-improve-public-health) and final issue briefs about lessons from Mathematica’s coaching of career navigators who supported more than 300 community health workers under the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative: https://mathematica.org/publications/lessons-learned-from-the-baltimore-health-corps-initiative-a-transitional-jobs-program-to-improve Read an independent evaluation of the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative, prepared by Abt Associates: https://moed.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2022-08-19-evaluation-baltimore-health-corps-pilot-economic-and-public-health Explore a dashboard developed by Mathematica and the Public Health Foundation to present key demographic characteristics of (1) contact tracing trainees who received training through the TRAIN Learning Network and (2) the communities they serve: https://www.mathematica.org/dataviz/building-community-based-contact-tracing Read a blog explaining the purpose behind the contact-tracing dashboard developed by Mathematica and the Public Health Foundation: https://mathematica.org/blogs/insights-for-building-a-community-based-contact-tracing-workforce Explore an interactive map and table developed by Mathematica and the National Academy for State Health Policy that tracks state approaches to contact tracing for COVID-19: https://www.nashp.org/state-approaches-to-contact-tracing-covid-19/ Explore a Mathematica data visualization showing the importance of demographics and other community characteristics in informing approaches to contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/dataviz/grounding-state-contact-tracing-efforts-in-context Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the variation in state approaches to contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/understanding-the-variation-in-states-covid-19-contact-tracing-approaches Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the importance of building a community-based contact-tracing workforce: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/contact-tracing-workforce-driving-equitable-sustained-risk-mitigation-in-a-post-pandemic-world Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the importance of equity in implementing effective contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/early-lessons-for-effective-and-equitable-contact-tracing

On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Gloria Sachdev of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, Maureen Hensley-Quinn of the National Academy for State Health Policy, and Evelyn Li and Guru Rasukonda of Mathematica discuss the value of new online tools for making sense of large sets of hospital cost and pricing data being made available in response to new federal regulations. A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/using-data-transparency-to-control-hospital-costs Explore Sage Transparency, a free online tool developed by the Employers’ Forum of Indiana and Mathematica. The tool draws on data from the RAND 4.0 Hospital Price Transparency Study, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and other health databases to show the real prices that employers pay for health care across the country: https://employerptp.org/sage-transparency/ Explore the Hospital Cost Tool, a dashboard designed by the National Academy for State Health Policy and Mathematica, which helps bridge the information gaps on costs and pricing: http://d3g6lgu1zfs2l4.cloudfront.net/

Across many safety net programs, workers with low income and their families face the threat of a sudden and unexpected loss of benefits if their earnings increase too much, sometimes resulting in a net decrease in overall income. Policymakers have long worried that the phenomenon, often described as the cash or benefits cliff, discourages work and reinforces dependence on public assistance. Over the past decade, the Social Security Administration has launched two national demonstrations intended to mitigate this so-called cash cliff effect in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. The latest episode of On the Evidence explores the results of those demonstrations and what they mean for future efforts to address program cliffs in the SSDI program and many other safety net programs. Our guests for this episode are John Jones, David Wittenburg, and Diane Beaver. Jones is an economist at the Social Security Administration in the Office of Research, Demonstration, and Employment Support who has overseen several large-scale randomized controlled trials testing potential changes to the SSDI program, including two discussed on this episode: the Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD) and the Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND). Wittenburg is a senior fellow at Mathematica whose research on interventions to promote employment for people with disabilities includes evaluations of POD and BOND. Beaver is an advisory services analyst at Mathematica who spent more than a decade at a community nonprofit counseling people on how work and other entitlements would affect their Social Security benefits. In that role, she played a part in implementing POD and has firsthand knowledge of what beneficiaries experience as they navigate the patchwork of program rules that govern the amount of government aid people can receive for housing, food, child care, health care, and other needs as their work status changes. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/why-a-national-demonstration-to-mitigate-the-cash-cliff-in-one-safety-net-program-didnt-increase Read the final evaluation report on POD: https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/documents/POD_Final_Evaluation_Report.pdf Read the final evaluation report on BOND: https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/documents/BOND%20Deliv%2024e2%20FER%20Vol%201%2020181018.pdf Find a summary of lessons learned from several decades of demonstrations by the Social Security Administration to test policy ideas in the Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs: https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/demonstrations/lessons.htm Learn more about the Ultimate Demonstration referenced at the tail end of the episode: https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/documents/Simplification_Demo_TEP_Final_Report_Final%20Remediated.pdf Watch a recorded discussion between Pamela Herd and Sebastian Jilke, professors at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, about administrative burden in the Social Security Disability Insurance program: https://www.ssab.gov/announcements/ssab-to-host-experts-on-researching-and-evaluating-equitable-access-to-social-security-programs/

The latest episode of On the Evidence, the Mathematica podcast, explores the primary care workforce crisis, a complex and long-standing problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Guests Sue Lin, Luci Leykum, Julie Schilz, and Diane Rittenhouse discuss recent research on the nature of the problem as well as evidence-based solutions for strengthening primary care. Lin is the deputy office director of the Office of Quality Improvement within the Bureau of Primary Health Care at the Health Resources and Services Administration. Leykum is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin who was involved in the creation of a report last year from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that looked ways to rebuild primary care. Schilz is a senior director on the Clinical and Quality Partners team at the Primary Care Development Corporation, which recently published a data brief on investing in primary care to achieve better health and equity in the United States. Rittenhouse is a family physician by training and a senior fellow at Mathematica, where she co-authored a report for the California Health Care Foundation that reviewed evidence that could inform health policies aimed at increasing the size and diversity of the primary care workforce in California. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/addressing-a-workforce-crisis-in-primary-care-made-more-severe-by-the-covid-19-pandemic Have questions for our podcast guests? Julie Schilz and Diane Rittenhouse will be participating in a Twitter chat co-hosted by Mathematica on June 23 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET on challenges and opportunities for the primary care workforce. Use the hashtag #PrimaryCarePolicyChat to find the chat on Twitter. Read the 2021 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on implementing high quality primary care: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25983/implementing-high-quality-primary-care-rebuilding-the-foundation-of-health Read Mathematica’s 2021 review of evidence-based strategies for increasing the size and diversity of the primary care workforce in California: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/health-workforce-strategies-for-california-a-review-of-the-evidence Read the Primary Care Development Corporation’s May 2022 data brief on investing in primary care to improve health and equity: https://www.pcdc.org/resources/investing-in-primary-care-the-pathway-to-better-health-and-equity-in-the-united-states/

In honor of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, Mathematica’s podcast, On the Evidence, explores recent research on the societal costs of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. These disorders—which can include depression, suicidal thoughts, and panic attacks—affect women and birthing people during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Although these disorders are common, they often go undiagnosed and untreated, which can negatively affect the long-term physical, emotional, and developmental health of the birthing parent and child. On this episode, Mathematica’s Kara Zivin, The Commonwealth Fund’s Laurie Zephyrin, and Texans Care for Children’s Adriana Kohler discuss the societal costs of maternal mental health conditions and how fresh evidence on those costs informed a policy change to improve the well-being of birthing people and their children in one state. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/the-costs-of-untreated-maternal-mental-health-conditions Additional resources: Read the 2021 issue brief from Mathematica and the St. David’s Foundation that estimated the societal costs of untreated maternal mental health conditions in Texas: https://mathematica.org/publications/untreated-maternal-mental-health-conditions-in-texas-costs-to-society-and-to-medicaid Read the 2021 issue brief from Mathematica and The Commonwealth Fund on the high costs of maternal morbidity: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2021/nov/high-costs-maternal-morbidity-need-investment-maternal-health Read the 2019 issue brief from Mathematica, the California Health Care Foundation, the ZOMA Foundation, and the Perigee Fund on the societal costs of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in the United States: https://mathematica.org/publications/societal-costs-of-untreated-perinatal-mood-and-anxiety-disorders-in-the-united-states State-level estimates, which Mathematica produced as part of the same research, are also available: California: https://mathematica.org/publications/societal-costs-of-untreated-perinatal-mood-and-anxiety-disorders-in-california Colorado: https://mathematica.org/publications/societal-costs-of-untreated-perinatal-mood-and-anxiety-disorders-in-colorado Washington State: https://mathematica.org/publications/societal-costs-of-untreated-perinatal-mood-and-anxiety-disorders-in-washington Read an op-ed in STAT by Zivin, Zephyrin, and Mathematica’s So O’Neil about the toll of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth: https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/23/staggering-toll-pregnancy-childbirth-related-complications/ Read an op-ed in STAT by Zivin about how her personal experience with suicidal thoughts during pregnancy drove her to conduct research on access to health care for women with mental health and substance use conditions during pregnancy and postpartum: https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/11/meghan-markle-gave-voice-to-the-despair-i-once-felt-during-pregnancy/

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted human services agencies to rethink how they engage with clients and how they address persistent stress and trauma experienced by their own staff. On this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s J.B. Wogan and Diana McCallum discuss how human services agencies have adapted during the pandemic. The episode also includes insights from Kataney Couamin and Andrea Barnum, who work at local agencies providing workforce services, as well as Mathematica’s Jonathan McCay and The Adjacent Possible’s Michelle Derr, who have provided research and evaluation technical assistance to state, tribal, and local agencies that administer the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/pandemic-era-adaptations-in-human-services-could-fill-a-need-even-outside-a-public-health-emergency Read the issue brief about supporting mental wellness for TANF program staff and participants: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/supporting-mental-wellness-program-staff-and-participants-strategies-temporary Read the issue brief about pandemic-era innovations for the future of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/brief-pandemic-era-innovations-future-temporary-assistance-needy-families-programs Read the issue brief about lessons from delivering remote services to job seekers with low incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://pathwaystowork.acf.hhs.gov/pathways_publications/lessons-learned-delivering-remote-services-job-seekers-low-incomes-during Read the issue brief about what works to help job seekers with low incomes during economic recessions and recoveries: https://mathematica.org/publications/what-works-during-economic-recessions-and-recoveries-evidence-from-the-pathways-clearinghouse Read the issue brief about providing coaching and navigation services virtually to promote economic mobility during the pandemic: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/using-coaching-and-navigation-to-promote-economic-mobility-how-might-programs-provide-these-services Read a program snapshot about a nonprofit in South Carolina that used virtual services to continue supporting fathers during the pandemic: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/engaging-fathers-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond-program-snapshot

As the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change demonstrate, in an increasingly interdependent world, communities across the globe face shared challenges and need shared solutions. In the latest episode of On the Evidence, Adam Coyne, Chris Boyd, and Respichius Deogratias Mitti discuss the changing role of data and evidence in supporting decisions to improve well-being in a more interconnected world. Coyne oversaw international research at Mathematica for most of the past two years and currently serves as the company’s chief growth officer. Boyd is the managing director of EDI Global, a data collection and research organization focused on East Africa that became a subsidiary of Mathematica in 2018. Mitti is a country director for EDI Global who lives and works in Tanzania. A transcript of the episode is available at mathematica.org/blogs/the-globalization-of-evidence-informed-decision-making-in-a-more-interdependent-world Learn more about Chris Boyd, the managing director of EDI Global, in a recent Q&A for Mathematica’s blog: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/a-conversation-with-chris-boyd Learn more about Mathematica’s international research in more than 50 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America: https://mathematica.org/focus-areas/international-research Learn more about Mathematica’s ground-breaking work on studying negative income tax experiments in the United States, which has informed pilot projects in other countries as well as in the U.S. to test the impacts of monthly guaranteed income payments: https://mathematica.org/blogs/idea-that-launched-a-policy-research-revolution

Sewage has proven to be a valuable source of real-time SARS-CoV-2 data during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving public officials insights into the health of their community without relying on individuals getting tested. But as wastewater monitoring expands, local officials and their research partners are increasingly interested in how wastewater testing might also advance or hinder equity. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Dr. Otakuye Conroy-Ben, and Aparna Keshaviah discuss the challenges of and opportunities for ensuring an equitable approach to wastewater monitoring and the importance of representation from historic Black neighborhoods, Indigenous communities, and rural communities. Jelks, Conroy-Ben, and Keshaviah are involved with the Wastewater Action Group, a national initiative founded and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute that seeks to transform wastewater data into public health action. The group includes five grantees that serve tribal nations and four cities: Atlanta, Houston, Louisville, and Tulsa. • Jelks, an assistant professor in environmental and health sciences at Spelman College, is an expert on health equity and community-engaged research approaches for environmental justice in southwest and northwest Atlanta’s African-American neighborhoods. • Conroy-Ben is an assistant professor of environmental engineering at Arizona State University, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and the principal investigator for research and community outreach projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health to support tribal nations in combatting coronavirus and improving local resources. • Keshaviah is an applied biostatistician and principal researcher at Mathematica who is a nationally recognized expert in translational wastewater research, has led wastewater-based research in Montana and North Carolina, and is collaborating with the Rockefeller Foundation to develop robust analytics and tools that boost the capacity of public health personnel to use wastewater data. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/ensuring-equity-as-wastewater-testing-matures-in-the-united-states To learn more about the Wastewater Action Group and the Rockefeller Foundation’s broader wastewater activities, contact Megan Diamond, who leads its international wastewater initiatives: [email protected] Learn more about the Rockefeller Foundation’s efforts to deliver an equitable and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while helping to guard against future pandemics: https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/covid-19-response/ Learn more about Mathematica’s work harnessing evidence on wastewater testing, vaccines, rapid antigen tests, and contact tracing to guide the COVID-19 pandemic response: https://mathematica.org/focus-areas/health/covid-19

On this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Mariel Finucane and John Deke join Tim Day of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to discuss the application of evidence-informed Bayesian methods that not only confirm whether a policy or program works, but for whom. Learn more about Mathematica's work using evidence-based Bayesian methods in applied policy research: https://mathematica.org/features/bayesian-methods Read a brief about using a Bayesian framework for interpreting findings from impact evaluations prepared by Mariel Finucane and John Deke for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families: mathematica.org/publications/moving-beyond-statistical-significance-the-basie-bayesian-interpretation-of-estimates-framework Read a paper co-authored by Mariel Finucane that compares Bayesian methods with the traditional frequentist approach to estimate the effects of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demonstration on Medicare spending: mathematica.org/publications/revolutionizing-estimation-and-inference-for-program-evaluation-using-bayesian-methods Read a paper co-authored by Tim Day describing an experiment to provide evidence that would be useful to policymakers and other decision makers through an interactive data visualization dashboard, presenting results from both frequentist and Bayesian analyses: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335169870_Making_Evidence_Actionable_Interactive_Dashboards_Bayes_and_Health_Care_Innovation Read Emily Oster’s newsletter article about why and how she applies Bayes’s Rule to interpret new evidence in the context of existing evidence, including a recent study (https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/does-pre-k-really-hurt-future-test) about the effects of a preschool program in Tennessee on future student test scores: https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/bayes-rule-is-my-faves-rule

Last year’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was the largest one-time federal investment in state, local, and Tribal governments in the past century, and it included $350 billion meant for governments to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. State, local, and Tribal governments have wide latitude in how they can spend the money, including the use of evaluation and data management tools that can improve the efficacy of public health and economic assistance programs. On the latest episode of On the Evidence, guests Zachary Markovits, Candace Miller, and Christy McFarland discuss the role that data and evidence are playing in state and local spending of ARPA fiscal relief funds. Markovits is the vice president and local practice lead at Results for America. His organization partnered with Mathematica to create the ARP Data and Evidence Dashboard (https://results4america.org/tools/arp-dashboard/), a free online tool that uses publicly available plans from local governments to analyze trends and assess the extent to which localities use data and evidence to guide how they spend their ARPA coronavirus fiscal relief funds. The dashboard is meant to inform and inspire state, local, and Tribal governments as they spend their coronavirus fiscal relief funds, half of which won’t be available until the spring. Miller is a principal researcher at Mathematica who helped create the ARP Data and Evidence Dashboard with Results for America. She also leads Mathematica’s work with Washington State on contact tracing and has appeared on a previous episode of On the Evidence to discuss the opportunities of and challenges to implementing an equitable approach to contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic. McFarland is the research director at the National League of Cities, which has developed the Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker (https://www.nlc.org/resource/local-government-arpa-investment-tracker/) and a local action tracker for COVID-19 (https://www.nlc.org/resource/covid-19-local-action-tracker/). Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/the-role-of-evidence-in-how-local-governments-spend-federal-pandemic-relief-funds Explore the ARP Data and Evidence Dashboard from Mathematica and Results for America: https://results4america.org/tools/arp-dashboard/ Explore the Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker from National League of Cities, Brookings Metro, and the National Association of Counties: https://www.nlc.org/resource/local-government-arpa-investment-tracker/ Read a blog by Zachary Markovits about how the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund in the American Rescue Plan Act encourages state, local, and Tribal governments to invest in solutions with evidence of effectiveness: https://results4america.medium.com/5-ways-governments-can-make-the-american-rescue-plan-work-for-all-526c8cda2537 Explore the Local Action Tracker from the National League of Cities, which collects and shares municipal responses to COVID-19: https://www.nlc.org/resource/covid-19-local-action-tracker/ Read an overview of the final rule from the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Relief Funds: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/SLFRF-Final-Rule-Overview.pdf

On this episode of On the Evidence, Temitope Ojo and Katlyn Lee Milless discuss their experience with the Mathematica Summer Fellowship in 2021. Ojo is a doctoral candidate at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Her research focuses on implementation science as well as the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases in a global setting. Milless is a doctoral candidate in basic and applied social psychology at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Her research takes a psychological approach to understanding how to promote gender and racial equity in education spaces, particularly among college students in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. On the episode, Ojo and Milless discuss their career paths, why they’re interested in applied research, and what they plan to do after completing their dissertations. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/a-conversation-with-mathematicas-2021-summer-fellows Mathematica is currently accepting applications for its 2022 Summer Fellowship program through the end of February. Find more information about the fellowship here: https://www.mathematica.org/career-opportunities/summer-fellowships

In her research, Sanya Carley examines the effects of energy policies, including their equity and justice implications. In a new episode of On the Evidence, Carley discusses her increased interest in understanding the human element of energy policy decisions: Who makes policy decisions, who benefits from those decisions, and who does not. Carley is a professor at the Paul O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, where she directs the Master of Public Affairs (MPA) Program and O'Neill Online MPA Program. In the fall of 2021, she was selected to be the 21st recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, which recognizes professionals younger than 40 who have made distinguished contributions to the field of public policy. In the episode, Carley discusses the origin story of her interest in energy policy, why she became interested in the equity and justice dimensions of energy policy, and how she ensures that her research influences decision makers. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/understanding-the-equity-and-justice-dimensions-of-energy-policy-decisions Follow Carley on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/carleysanya Listen to her new podcast, Just Energy, here: https://spoti.fi/3so2FXF Read her scholarship here: https://bit.ly/3HlLPP5 Learn more about Mathematica's work on climate change here: https://mathematica.org/sp/climate-change/climate-action Listen to our interview with Adam Coyne about Mathematica's recent work around climate action here: https://bit.ly/3msxxDZ

Between a pandemic, an uneven economic recovery, ongoing concerns about societal inequities, and increasingly troubling signs of climate change’s impacts, decision makers in 2021 faced an acute need for timely and reliable evidence about what works to address a range of health and social challenges. In this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Adam Coyne, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm reflect on the role that evidence played in responding to pressing challenges in the past year and preview how evidence may help address problems in the year ahead. Coyne, Constantine, and Trenholm are the general managers of Mathematica’s International, Human Services, and Health business units, respectively. The episode features short interviews with each of them as they discuss some of Mathematica’s most significant work from the past year. Each interview includes a preview of projects, initiatives, and likely themes for 2022. This episode is being released in conjunction with Mathematica’s year-in-review feature page, Inquiry to Insight, which includes a curated summary of impactful, evidence-based work by Mathematica and its partners in 2021: mathematica.org/features/from-inquiry-to-insight-in-2021 The interview with Adam Coyne begins at 2:00. The interview with Jill Constantine begins at 18:22. The interview with Chris Trenholm begins at 42:08. A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/reflecting-on-evidence-and-insights-in-2021-and-the-year-ahead

The latest episode of On the Evidence focuses on the ways that racism and inequity within human services programs affect fathers and families, and how adopting a more inclusive father engagement strategy can benefit children, fathers, and their families. Today, federal and state governments, as well as foundations and nonprofits, are emphasizing the importance of understanding the role of racism in American institutions and policies. In partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers across a wide range of human services programs, with the goal of helping fathers and families thrive. On this episode, guests Alan-Michael Graves, Leonard Burton, Shaneen Moore, Jerry Tello, and Armando Yañez discuss how human services programs have historically treated fathers, particularly fathers of color, and strategies for improving the racial equity of these programs as it relates to father engagement. Graves is the senior director of teaching, capacity building, and systems change with the Good+Foundation, a national nonprofit that works to dismantle multi-generational poverty. Burton is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a national nonprofit policy organization that connects community action, public system reform, and policy change to create a fair and just society. Moore is the director of the Child Support Division within the Children and Family Services administration of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Tello is the founder of and director of training and capacity building at the Compadres Network, a national nonprofit that provides a voice for racial equity, healing, training, technical assistance, and systems change. Yañez is a research analyst at Mathematica. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/advancing-racial-equity-in-fatherhood-programs Learn more about the partnership between ASPE and Mathematica to identify the strategies human services programs use to engage fathers: https://aspe.hhs.gov/father-engagement

In the United States, education and training programs are available to help adults with low incomes secure better jobs and earn higher wages. But, of an estimated 21 million parents with low incomes nationwide, only about 1 in 10 participated in such programs. One reason the participation rate isn’t higher? Inadequate supply of affordable and convenient child care options. The lack of child is a major barrier for parents with low incomes who want to engage in training, acquire new skills, increase their earnings, and advance their careers. In 2016 the U.S. Department of Labor launched a five-year federal grant program called the Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) to remove barriers to child care for parents with low incomes who wanted to participate in education and training programs. SWFI provided 13 grantees in 12 states with up to $4 million each. The grantees were a mix of nonprofits, local workforce development boards, institutions of higher learning, and municipalities. As part of the initiative, Mathematica provided technical assistance to SWFI grantees to assist them with identifying areas for improvement, co-creating solutions, and assessing progress. The latest episode of On the Evidence explores lessons from SWFI that can inform federal policies and programs, as well as cross-sector community partnerships at the local level that help parents participate in education and training by removing barriers to child care. This episode features the following guests: • Robin Fernkas, the deputy administrator for the Office of Workforce Investment at the U.S. Department of Labor • Shalonda Jackson, a working mom in Mississippi who completed a pre-apprenticeship training program and found a job in the shipbuilding industry afterward • Carol Burnett, the executive director of Moore Community House, a SWFI grantee in Mississippi that provides workforce training to women as well as early childhood education • Ruth Mazara, a program manager at Moore Community House • Nick Schultz, the executive director of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Innovation Network, a public agency in Long Beach, California, that received a SWFI grant • Sandra Dafiaghor, who directs OAI Chicago Southland, a workforce development agency that received a SWFI grant • David Moore, who directed the SwiftStart program for Total Action for Progress, a workforce development agency in Virginia that received a SWFI grant • Nickie Fung, a researcher at Mathematica who provided technical assistance to SWFI grantees Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/removing-barriers-to-child-care-for-parents-in-education-and-training-programs Learn more about Mathematica's work on SWFI here: mathematica.org/projects/strengthening-working-families-initiatives

Although researchers play an important role in making progress on equitable research, they are one part of a broader ecosystem of people and organizations who make research possible and use research findings to change policies, programs, and practices to improve people’s lives. On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on the role of funders, particularly those in the philanthropic sector, as early proponents and adopters of culturally responsive and equitable research in social programs. Our guests for this episode are Mindelyn Anderson and Kimberlin Butler. Anderson is a sociologist who has studied social inequality and stratification, race and migration, education and social mobility, and health. She is the founder and principal of Mirror Group, a consulting firm that brings collaborative, participatory, utilization-focused evaluation and capacity building to communities and learning organizations, including foundations. Butler is the senior director of foundation engagement at Mathematica. Since joining Mathematica in 2019, Kimberlin has helped lead the company to incorporate equity in all aspects of Mathematica’s work. She also works with foundations that are setting the agenda on embedding equity in research in areas like food security, early care and education, and economic mobility. During the conversation, Anderson and Butler talk about their career paths, how they became interested in culturally responsive and equitable research, the role philanthropy plays in centering equity in research, and how research organizations can avoid common pitfalls as they seek to incorporate equity in their work. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/how-and-why-foundations-push-to-advance-equity-through-evidence

On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a national initiative aimed at addressing social needs like housing or food insecurity that affect a person's health. Specifically, we discuss a screening tool for health-related social needs. The screening tool stems from the Accountable Health Communities Model, a nationwide initiative funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. Mathematica developed, on CMS’s behalf, a guide to help health care providers administer the screening tool. Our guests for this episode are Natalia Barolín from CMS; Maureen Kirkwood and Rafael Castañon of Health Net of West Michigan, a bridge organization participating in the Accountable Health Communities Model; Rachel Kogan of Mathematica who helped write the screening tool guide; and Lee-Lee Ellis, a health researcher formerly at Mathematica who facilitated peer learning among organizations that used the screening tool as part of their participation in the Accountable Health Communities Model. Learn more about the screening tool and guide here: http://mathematica.org/news/new-guide-helps-providers-address-health-related-social-needs Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/lessons-from-a-national-health-initiative-that-helps-address-social-needs

On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a creative initiative designed to build a more diverse pipeline of researchers who use methods and tools from data science and social science. Earlier this year, Howard University and Mathematica sponsored a free, two-week training for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty in the fields of data science and social science. The training was part of a broader instructional program held at 20 sites across the globe called the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS). The Howard-Mathematica SICSS was unique in that it was the first site to be hosted by a historically Black college or university (Howard) and the first to focus on anti-Black racism and inequity. This episode will include the following guests: • Nicole Jenkins, an assistant professor at Howard University in the Department of Sociology and Criminology whose ethnographic research focuses on studying the experiences of Black women in institutions • Jeremy Prim, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis whose research focuses on race, policing, exclusionary discipline, and educational outcomes • Felix Owusu, a Ph.D. candidate in public policy at Harvard whose dissertation research centers on racial disparities in the criminal legal system • Naniette Coleman, founder and lead organizer of the SICSS-Howard/Mathematica and a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Berkeley • Matt Salganik, a professor of sociology at Princeton University who is a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors and the author of Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age • Akira Bell, a senior vice president and the chief information officer at Mathematica • Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University and a surgical oncologist whose medical research focuses on narrowing racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in cancer-care outcomes • Paul Decker, president and chief executive officer of Mathematica Read an op-ed in The Hechinger Report by Wayne A.I. Frederick and Paul Decker, the presidents of Howard University and Mathematica, respectively, about the need to increase diversity in research and analytics: https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-a-lack-of-diversity-in-research-and-analytics-is-not-just-unethical-it-is-dangerous/ Read more about the launch of the SICSS-Howard/Mathematica: https://mathematica.org/events/howard-university-mathematica-computational-social-science-institute-on-countering-anti-black-racism A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/inside-an-initiative-to-diversify-the-field-of-computational-social-science

On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a demonstration in Vermont evaluated by Mathematica intended to help high school students with disabilities transition to college and the workforce. In 2016, the Rehabilitation Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Education, awarded grants to state vocational rehabilitation agencies to build on the body of knowledge about what works to help young people transition from high school to adulthood. States had to identify and demonstrate evidence-based practices for providing work-based learning experiences in integrated settings. Mathematica evaluated the resulting demonstration in Vermont called Linking Learning to Careers. On this episode, guests from Mathematica and Vermont's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation reflect on successes and challenges in implementing the demonstration as well as lessons for other states interested in trying a similar program for transition-age youth with disabilities. Our guests for this episode are Rich Tulikangas, Emma Page, Diane Torres, and Purvi Sevak. • Tulikangas is the director of Linking Learning to Careers for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. • Page is a youth employment specialist in Addison County, Vermont. She works with high school students and young adults, helping them progress along their career paths. • Torres is a senior transition counselor for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the career consultant for Linking Learning to Careers in Bennington, Vermont. • Sevak is a principal researcher at Mathematica who studies disability, health, and employment policy. She led the impact evaluation of the Linking Learning to Careers demonstration. This episode was made possible through funding from the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. A full transcript of the episode, as well as a video recording of the episode with closed captioning, are available here: mathematica.org/blogs/improving-college-and-career-readiness-of-high-school-students-with-disabilities Read Mathematica’s reports on the implementation and impacts of Vermont’s Linking Learning to Careers demonstration: http://mathematica.org/projects/evaluation-of-the-vermont-linking-learning-to-careers-model

Our guest for this episode of On the Evidence is Anita Summers, a former member of Mathematica's Board of Directors and a pioneer in the fields of economics and public policy research. Summer's career includes research posts with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Standard Oil, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. During her time at the Federal Reserve, she developed expertise in urban economic development and education. Summers has held a variety of academic appointments, including as a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she started the first public policy department in a business school. From 1993 through 2019, Summers was also a member of Mathematica’s board of directors, serving as board chair for most of that time. On the latest episode of On the Evidence, Summers shares what it was like to embark on a career in economics as a woman in the 1940s, the sexism she encountered, how she navigated those challenges, and the role her family played in her career choices. As an early practitioner of using data and statistical analysis to inform contemporary policy debates, she also weighs in on how the field of evidence-based policy has changed and what lies ahead for the profession. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/reflections-on-a-pioneering-career-in-economics-and-public-policy-research Read Summers’s article from 1973 on equity in school financing for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Business Review: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/business-review-federal-reserve-bank-philadelphia-5580/march-1973-557534/equity-school-financing-523404 Read Summers’s article from 1975 on measuring the effect of school resources on learning for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Business Review: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/business-review-federal-reserve-bank-philadelphia-5580/february-1975-557556/school-resources-help-learning-efficiency-equity-philadelphia-public-schools-523479

Almost seven years ago, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched an initiative to test a possible solution to improper use of ambulance rides, long cited as a major source of waste and abuse in the Medicare program. The idea was pretty simple: Require companies that provide patients with repetitive, scheduled, non-emergent ambulance transport (RSNAT) for certain types of health care, such as dialysis or cancer treatments, to get prior authorization from CMS before providing service and submitting a claim for payment. Mathematica evaluated impacts of the initiative, which was implemented in the District of Columbia and eight states. Because non-emergency ambulance service use is rare in the Medicare program, the study focused on Medicare beneficiaries who are most likely to use RSNAT services—those with end-stage renal disease and/or severe pressure ulcers. Those two groups account for about 85 percent of Medicare RSNAT claims, so any change in use and spending would be most detectable among those patients. The most recent Mathematica evaluation found that, as a result of prior authorization, RSNAT costs declined by over 70 percent since the initiative started. Importantly, spending less on RSNAT services resulted in a decrease in overall Medicare fee-for-service spending of more than 2 percent, equal to about $1 billion since the initiative started. All of this occurred without any evidence of a decline in access to care or the quality of care beneficiaries received. Late last year, CMS announced that it would expand the use of prior authorization for RSNAT services nationwide. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Amy Cinquegrani of CMS and Andrew Asher of Mathematica discuss lessons that could inform the national rollout as well as novel approaches for using data analytics to further reduce improper health care use and payments. Cinquegrani directs the Division of Payment Methods and Strategies at the Center for Program Integrity within CMS. Asher is a senior fellow at Mathematica, where he focuses on using data to help health care payers strengthen the integrity of their programs, realize cost savings, monitor programs, and improve program outcomes. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/lessons-from-a-successful-medicare-program-integrity-demonstration-soon-to-expand-nationwide Read a short fact sheet summarizing findings from the evaluation of the Medicare Prior Authorization Model for Repetitive Scheduled Non-Emergent Ambulance Transport: https://innovation.cms.gov/data-and-reports/2021/rsnat-finlevalrpt-fg Read the CMS announcement that the Medicare Prior Authorization Model for RSNAT would expand nationwide: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-expand-successful-ambulance-program-integrity-payment-model-nationwide

Five years ago, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in partnership with the Kresge Foundation, launched Hope Starts Here, a community-focused, citywide initiative aimed at ensuring that all children in Detroit are prepared for kindergarten by increasing access to high quality early care and education. As part of the citywide initiative, Mathematica, with financial support from the Kellogg Foundation, worked to implement promising strategies to enhance the quality of informal child care, which is defined as unlicensed care provided by family, friends, and neighbors. Outside of care provided by a parent, informal child care is the most common form of care for infants and toddlers in the United States. The project focused on providing resources and support informal providers in southwest Detroit, one of 10 neighborhoods in the city where the number of children who need early care and education vastly exceeds the number of available, licensed slots. Even when a licensed slot is available, families may still prefer informal care because they believe the providers are more trustworthy, provide more culturally consistent care, and offer more affordable and convenient care. On the latest episode of On the Evidence, people involved in the effort to support informal child care in southwest Detroit reflect on the experience. Given how many families in United States rely on this form of care, insights on how to strengthen the quality of care and education offered by informal providers could help make the overall child care and early education system stronger and more equitable across the country. Guests for the episode are: • Linda Jackson, an informal care provider • Violeta Ramirez, an informal care provider • AleshaNicole, a teaching artist at Living Arts, a neighborhood nonprofit that provides arts education programs to engage and inspire youth, families, and teachers • Amanda Holiday, an early childhood specialist at Congress of Communities, a resident-led organizing and advocacy agency working for change in the areas of public safety and education • Eileen Storer Smith, a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation • Cleo Jacobs Johnson, a senior researcher at Mathematica Read the issue brief from Mathematica on supporting informal child care providers in southwest Detroit: http://mathematica.org/news/insights-from-a-community-collaborative-to-improve-informal-child-care-in-detroit Read a blog by Mathematica’s Mynti Hossain, Nazihah Siddiqui, and Cleo Jacobs Johnson about why supporting informal child care providers is key to advancing equity: mathematica.org/blogs/supporting-informal-child-care-providers-is-key-to-advancing-equity

All over the country, federally funded Head Start programs promote the school readiness of young children ages birth through five from families with low incomes. These programs provide early education and a range of comprehensive services at no cost to the family. Although Head Start programs have historically empowered parents to be involved in their children’s learning and development, it’s been more common for mothers to be the focus of those efforts. Realizing the important role that fathers play in their children’s development and the family’s well-being, Head Start is increasingly working to engage fathers in program services. This episode of On the Evidence focuses on Bright Beginnings, a nonprofit in Washington, DC, that provides both center-based and home-based Head Start programming for children and families. It is notable for its robust set of services and supports that are designed to help families by helping fathers. The guests for this episode are Danielle DeLisle, a research analyst at Mathematica, and two employees at Bright Beginnings, Anthony Sessoms and Ryan Pratt. Sessoms oversees the nonprofit’s fatherhood initiative. Pratt is a maintenance technician at Bright Beginnings and a father who has participated in its fatherhood programming. This episode was made possible with support from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This episode returns to a topic On the Evidence has explored before: fathers’ engagement in human services programs. Fathers play an important role in their children’s development, and most fathers want to be involved with their children’s lives. However, many government and nonprofit programs were originally designed to serve women and children, and excluded fathers in the process. That’s starting to change. More government agencies, nonprofits, and researchers are exploring strategies that embrace fathers’ desire to be involved with their children. ASPE has partnered with Mathematica to study strategies for including and engaging fathers in social service programming. The ultimate goal is to better support the well-being of families. The episode has two parts: a long-form conversation about Bright Beginnings with Sessoms and Pratt, followed by a brief discussion with DeLisle about related research from Mathematica and ASPE. Learn more about the partnership between ASPE and Mathematica to identify the strategies human services programs use to engage fathers: https://aspe.hhs.gov/father-engagement Listen to a previous episode of On the Evidence about how fatherhood programs pivoted to keep engaging fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic: http://mathematica.org/blogs/how-fatherhood-programs-supported-dads-during-the-pandemic A transcript of the episode is available here: http://mathematica.org/blogs/new-insights-from-an-early-childhood-nonprofit-that-supports-fathers Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence. Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

Contact tracing is an important public health tool for containing the spread of disease, including COVID-19. But contact tracers are effective only if they can persuade people to answer questions about recent whereabouts and who else might have been exposed. Contact tracers are more likely to be successful in their outreach if they and the people they are contacting have similar backgrounds. Currently, no one collects and reports information on the composition of the COVID-19 workforce in communities across the country, making it difficult to know whether the workforce could be more effective with focused recruitment strategies. However, a partnership between Mathematica and the Public Health Foundation sheds some light on who is engaged in contact tracing during the pandemic and how their backgrounds compare with the backgrounds of people in their local communities. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Ilya Plotkin and Jia Pu discuss an interactive dashboard that uses a large and unique national data set to visualize demographic data of COVID-19 contact tracing trainees and the communities they serve. • Plotkin is the director of the TRAIN Learning Network, a service of the Public Health Foundation that provides a clearinghouse of learning opportunities, including free training on contact tracing, for health professionals. Although it is not the only source of training on contact tracing, it is one of the largest. As of early April 2021, more than 40,000 people participated in its training on COVID-19 contact tracing. • Pu is a health researcher at Mathematica who led the development of the dashboard based on data from the TRAIN Learning Network and other sources. During the podcast, Plotkin and Pu share how their personal backgrounds as part of Russian and Chinese immigrant communities in the U.S. motivated them to develop a resource for culturally sensitive, equitable, and effective contact tracing during the pandemic. They discuss potential applications of the dashboard and important limitations of the data. They also explain why contact tracing, as a tool for controlling and preventing disease spread, will only grow in importance as more people are vaccinated, infections decline, and more parts of the economy, such as schools and offices, reopen. Find a transcript of the conversation here: https://bit.ly/3w1LGKP Read a blog post by Ilya and Jia that provides further context about the COVID-19 contact tracing workforce dashboard: https://bit.ly/2Q3IEpY Explore the COVID-19 contact tracing workforce dashboard: https://bit.ly/3tB2DtK Email [email protected] if you would like your information about the contact tracing workforce to be included in the dashboard. 9XncXvdUP3gYNrav9j5B

In partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers across a wide range of human services programs, with the goal of helping fathers and families thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many of the typical ways organizations support fathers and their families, but it has also provided motivation to be creative, to adapt, and to experiment with digital services that have certain advantages in helping fathers meet their goals over traditional in-person services. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests John Ward, Sean Wilson, Richard Barr, Kirk Berry, and Rebekah Selekman discuss COVID-19’s implications for delivering fatherhood engagement services during and after the pandemic. • Ward is a father who shares experience working with a local nonprofit, Father to Father, in Charleston, SC. • Wilson is an intervention specialist at Father to Father who worked with Ward. • Barr is the vice president of strategic and organizational development at the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families, a statewide nonprofit that operates six local fatherhood organizations, including Father to Father. • Berry is an expert on responsible fatherhood programs at Public Strategies, a public policy research and consulting firm. • Selekman is a researcher at Mathematica leading the KEEP Fathers Engaged project with ASPE. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/3aNxOvp Learn more about the partnership between ASPE and Mathematica to identify strategies used to engage fathers across human service programming: https://aspe.hhs.gov/father-engagement Some of the clips from this episode come from a webinar hosted by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). We thank APHSA for allowing us to use clips from its Third Thursday Virtual Mini-Series, which is available here: https://www.aphsathirdthursday.com/ Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Patricia A. King, LaVerne H. Council, and Akira Bell discuss diversity in evidence-based public policy and how it relates to issues of inclusion and justice. They are all members of Mathematica's Board of Directors who recently helped develop the company's aspirational vision that by 2035, "Mathematica is shaping an equitable and just world in which evidence drives decisions for global impact." They bring unique perspectives as Black women who are leaders in the fields of law, medicine, and technology. Patricia is a professor emerita at Georgetown Law. LaVerne is a founder and the chief executive officer of Emerald One, which works with mission-driven leaders and organizations to create and execute business and technology strategies that enact positive change. Akira is a senior vice president and the chief information officer at Mathematica. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/3dXAZmc Find LaVerne's podcast, Brilliant in 20 here: https://bit.ly/3tvrfFe Find Akira's blog on ensuring that data security, privacy, and ethics are at the heart of the digital transformation occurring at Mathematica and other evidence-building organizations: https://bit.ly/3e81hB5 Read an interview with Pat about the 25th anniversary of the Belmont Report here: https://bit.ly/3uOgTAC Read an interview with Pat about her career as a civil rights leader here: https://bit.ly/3tp5Hu0 Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, participants can choose to enter a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

In late March, the Biden administration announced that it was investing $10 billion to ramp up COVID-19 screening testing to help schools reopen. The expansion of screening tests in schools follows a February report from Mathematica that drew lessons from the experiences of six pilot sites that implemented COVID-19 testing in schools. These pilot programs—in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Los Angeles, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma; New Orleans, Louisiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and Washington, DC—were conducted with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, and Johns Hopkins University. The report provided insights about the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of adding a testing program to schools’ existing COVID-19 related plans. For this episode of On the Evidence, guests Jennifer Harper, Sarah Hanck, and Divya Vohra discuss findings from the Mathematica report, impacts of the report so far, more recent lessons based on Tulsa’s experience implementing testing, and what leaders in schools and communities across the country need to know about using antigen testing as a screening tool. Harper is the project manager for COVID antigen testing in schools in Tulsa. Hanck is a senior advisor at the Rockefeller Foundation for strategy and impact who has provided guidance and support to Mathematica as it gathered evidence about antigen testing in the six pilot sites. Vohra is a senior researcher at Mathematica who coauthored the report on the pilots. Read Mathematica's report on the partnership between six pilot sites and the Rockefeller Foundation to implement COVID-19 rapid antigen tests in schools: mathematica.org/news/research-supported-by-the-rockefeller-foundation-strengthens-the-evidence-base-for-reopening-k-12 Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

March 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The disease we’ve come to know as COVID-19 has now infected more than 28 million Americans and led to at least half a million deaths in the United States. COVID-19 has also incurred serious damage to the nation’s economy. In February, the number of unemployed persons was 10 million, up from 5.7 million a year earlier. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests George Putnam, Dana Rotz, and Naihobe Gonzalez discuss the current distressed economy and evidence-based ideas about how to help workers who have been negatively affected by the pandemic. • Putnam, the labor market information director at the Illinois Department of Employment Security, helps the Midwest Collaborative, a consortium of nine states that share current administrative data across sectors and state lines to develop insights to support reemployment and economic recovery efforts. • Rotz is a senior researcher at Mathematica who leads a team at Mathematica that is producing short summaries of research related to pressing employment issues during the pandemic. • Gonzalez is also a senior researcher at Mathematica who coauthored a recent report for the U.S. Department of Education on findings from two experiments that allowed the use of Pell Grants to help displaced workers earn credentials that might quickly improve a person’s job prospects. To find a written transcript of the episode and to learn more about the data and research discussed on this episode, visit mathematica.org/commentary/using-evidence-to-guide-employment-assistance-strategies-during-and-after-the-pandemic. Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

Nearly a year after COVID-19 took root in the United States, Americans are still dealing with the pandemic’s economic fallout. In January 2021, more than 10 million Americans were unemployed, up from roughly 5.8 million a year earlier. On this episode of On the Evidence, four guests discuss an increasingly popular approach for helping people find jobs and achieve other, related goals that provide economic security, such as getting a GED, buying a car, and improving a credit score. The approach combines two related services called coaching and navigation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with Mathematica to better understand what coaching and navigation look like in practice, how the approaches are helping people through remote services during the pandemic, how they can be used to address racial and social inequities, and what evidence currently exists about their efficacy. In addition to hosting a virtual convening and producing a series of issue briefs on the topic, Mathematica invited the following experts involved with coaching and navigation to share their experiences on this episode of On the Evidence: - Ty Wright, a community engagement coordinator at AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School, who has benefited from coaching and navigation - Lucy Smart, the program coordinator of parent engagement for LIFT-DC, who also provides coaching services - Brian Marroquin, a senior program director for LIFT, a national nonprofit that provides coaching and navigation services in four cities - Sheena McConnell, a senior fellow at Mathematica who studies employment programs that help vulnerable families Read about current knowledge on the effectiveness of coaching and navigation in facilitating economic mobility: https://bit.ly/37IZgc9 Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey. Find it at the link below: tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.

On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Ravi Goyal and Natasha Martin share lessons from using an agent-based model to predict the spread of COVID-19 in a university setting. Goyal is a senior statistician at Mathematica who has an expertise in epidemic modeling. Martin is an infectious disease economic modeler and an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego. They recently collaborated on a project that estimated the potential impact of masking, social distancing, and regular testing on the spread of COVID-19 at UC San Diego. Learn more about the COVID-19 agent-based modeling partnership between UC San Diego and Mathematica here: https://bit.ly/3sLL4bp Explore the web tool Goyal and Martin discuss on the podcast here: https://bit.ly/39UMXtz Read more about the agent-based model and results in a recent article published in the journal, Clinical Infectious Diseases here: https://bit.ly/3r9TqYX Learn more about Mathematica's partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which used agent-based modeling to inform K-12 school leaders about the relative risks of different operating and closure strategies here: https://bit.ly/3pct8EF Learn more about Mathematica's work on using wastewater testing to detect early trends in COVID-19 infections here: https://bit.ly/3iM5zAa For an up-to-date overview on Mathematica's involvement in the COVID-19 response, visit our landing page on COVID-19: https://bit.ly/3pmp8By

Between a pandemic, an economic recession, and heightened awareness about social injustice, 2020 presented no shortage of urgent health and social challenges that required immediate responses based on emerging data and research. In this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Adam Coyne, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm reflect on how Mathematica and its partners rose to meet those challenges. Coyne, Constantine, and Trenholm are the general managers of Mathematica’s international, human services, and health business units, respectively. The episode features short interviews with each of them as they share some of Mathematica’s most memorable work from the past year. Each interview includes a preview of projects, initiatives, and likely themes in 2021. We have a full list of resources mentioned on the episode on the Mathematica blog: https://bit.ly/3oIJxQV

In early spring, states were scrambling to learn from one another how to scale up contact tracing for COVID-19. Staff at Mathematica and the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) recognized that states needed a single place to find accurate, up-to-date publicly available information about the decisions that other states were making in response to the pandemic. To help states as they develop and refine their approaches to contact tracing, NASHP and Mathematica partnered to create and maintain a central repository that reflects publicly available information about how states approach this work. NASHP hosts an interactive map and table with detailed information about states’ approaches to COVID-19 contact tracing. It is the single most comprehensive resource for documenting the variation in states’ approaches to contact tracing for COVID-19 and updated on a regular basis. Mathematica hosts a supplementary web tool that provides contextual information about each state’s population based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which can inform contact tracing strategies. For this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica's Holly Matulewicz and Sule Gerovich as well as NASHP's Jill Rosenthal and Elinor Higgins discuss the origin story of the data visualizations, what they're learning from the tools, and how the tools might be updated or improved going forward. Watch the original video chat, where the guests demonstrate how to use the web tools, here: https://bit.ly/37PzhPv See the interactive map and table hosted by NASHP here: https://bit.ly/2JS7czh See the companion page with an interactive map and charts showing data from the U.S. Census Bureau hosted by Mathematica here: https://bit.ly/3m60Uc9

For more than two decades, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supported evidence-based programs in India that promote reproductive health and rights. As the foundation phased out its grantmaking related to population and reproductive health, it partnered with Mathematica to conduct a cumulative review of its efforts to improve maternal health in India. The foundation’s maternal health quality of care strategy in India sought to improve the trajectory of health for women, children, and their families. Although the country had already made considerable progress in expanding access to maternal health services and, in the process, driving down the national maternal mortality ratio, the foundation and its grantees sought to improve the quality of these services, which is seen as a contributing factor in the pregnancy-related deaths that still occur today. Because the Mathematica report was published in late February, it summarizes the state of maternal health in India up to, but not including, the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode of On the Evidence, six guests discuss insights from the report and provide perspectives on how the pandemic has changed the supply and demand for maternal health services. The following guests appear in the episode: - Dipa Nag Chowdhury, who served as the deputy director of the MacArthur Foundation’s India office - So O’Neil, a Mathematica senior researcher and the lead author of the cumulative review of the MacArthur Foundation’s efforts to improve the quality of maternal health care in India - Sharad Iyengar, a pediatrician and the chief executive of Action Research & Training for Health - Renu Khanna, a co-founder of the SAHAJ-Society for Health Alternatives - Vinoj Manning, chief executive officer at the Ipas Development Foundation - Aparajita Gogoi, executive director of the Centre for Catalyzing Change Find the report discussed in this episode here: https://bit.ly/3nUoolT Find bonus interviews below: Vinoj Manning: https://bit.ly/3l6GDmg Renu Khanna: https://bit.ly/39ffJ9z Sharad Iyengar: https://bit.ly/2UZfnvF Aparajita Gogoi: https://bit.ly/2V2kbAw

In his research, Kirabo Jackson, an economist at Northwestern University, has explored the causal relationship between school spending and student outcomes. His work has also shed light on the role that teachers and schools play in helping students acquire skills and succeed in the long run. Jackson is the 20th winner of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, established to recognize young professionals under the age of 40 who have made distinguished contributions to the field of public policy. David Kershaw, for whom the award is named, was a founder and the first president of Mathematica. In the spring of 1979, he helped guide the establishment of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and Mathematica’s principal role within it, before his death from cancer later that year at the age of 37. The award in his memory was created in 1983 and has since been jointly administered by Mathematica and APPAM. The award is presented every other year at the APPAM Fall Research Conference in November. In this episode of On the Evidence, Jackson discusses his research on education spending and on measuring the effects of teachers and schools on students’ long-term success.

For about a decade, the national supply of teachers has steadily declined, a trend that is expected to continue even as the demand for new teachers is projected to increase. Not only do schools and school districts need enough teachers, but they want to recruit and retain effective teachers. Because evidence suggests that students of color benefit academically from having a teacher who shares their racial or ethnic identity, increasing the number of effective teachers likely means, among other things, that schools will need to increase the number Black, Latinx, and other teachers of color. For this episode of On the Evidence, guests Sharif El-Mekki and Jill Constantine talk about the current challenges with recruiting and retaining teachers, especially Black male teachers, and what evidence-based practices may help. El-Mekki is a former teacher and principal in Philadelphia and currently the chief executive officer of the Center for Black Educator Development, a nonprofit focused on increasing the number of Black educators in preK–12 education. He also writes an education blog called Philly's 7th Ward (https://phillys7thward.org/) and is a co-host of The 8 Black Hands Podcast (https://apple.co/37LK3YM). Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/selmekki. Constantine is a senior vice president at Mathematica and an expert on teacher training and quality. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jconjazz. Interested in digging into some of the latest research on retaining a diverse and effective teacher workforce? The Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic released a new study in October 2020 focused on the School District of Philadelphia: https://bit.ly/2HFGDMC

In mid-September, researchers from Mathematica partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to run 400,000 simulations intended to inform school operating and closure strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The simulations predict the level of spread of COVID-19 infection in schools, taking into account a range of factors. These factors include school type and size, the community infection rate, school mask policies and other precautions, in-person opening strategies, and potential school responses to detected infections. For this episode of On the Evidence, guests Adam Schott and Brian Gill discuss the results and implications of these simulations. Schott is the special assistant to the secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Gill is a senior fellow at Mathematica and one of the researchers who coauthored the report about the simulations. Find a short summary of the top-line findings here: https://bit.ly/318rVEh Read the full report discussed in this episode here: https://bit.ly/351QMuy Check out a blog post explaining how school and community leaders could use the report to estimate the potential risks in their specific situation, based on the community infection rate; school type; school size; and the school’s operating, quarantining, and closure strategies: https://bit.ly/2SWBykV

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected people in long-term care settings, who only make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population but represented more than 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States in September. In Connecticut, that disproportionate impact was even more severe: as of July 30, about 72 percent of the state’s COVID-19-related deaths were among long-term care residents. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Patricia Rowan and Debra Lipson of Mathematica discuss their independent assessment of COVID-19’s impacts on nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Connecticut. Their final report, which published on Sept. 30, includes findings on why the pandemic was so devastating in the state’s long-term care facilities earlier in the year. It also recommends steps that the state and the long-term care industry can take to prepare for a potential second wave of COVID-19 infections and for future infectious disease outbreaks. Although Mathematica conducted the assessment for the state of Connecticut, the report’s recommendations are intended to provide evidence-based guidance to policymakers in every state. Find the final report and a short summary of the report's main findings here: https://bit.ly/3iEuiov

Although performance measurement and program evaluation are both ostensibly about assessing the effectiveness of government, they have historically meant different things in terms of what gets assessed and who does the assessing. Performance measurement is more commonly associated with ongoing monitoring and reporting of program accomplishments and is typically conducted by program or agency staff. Program evaluation, on the other hand, is more commonly associated with periodic or ad hoc studies conducted by experts outside of an agency or program. But are those distinctions still relevant today? That’s one of the questions journalists Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene discuss in their new book, The Promises and Pitfalls of Performance-Informed Management. In this episode of On the Evidence, Barrett and Greene talk about how state and local governments use performance measurement and program evaluation to inform management decisions, providing contemporary case studies along with historical context about how the field has evolved over the past three decades. The episode covers the following topics: - The integration of different but related disciplines of performance auditing, performance measurement, and program evaluation (19:42–22:23) - The increasing availability of data and its effect on performance-informed management (22:26–26:40) - Changes over time in how states value, understand, and use data in decision making (28:40–30:15) - What the book might have covered about the two major stories of 2020—the COVID-19 pandemic and concern over persistent racism in the United States—if it had been published a few months later (30:14–37:05) Other resources that we discuss on the episode are available here: https://bit.ly/35UYGbx Barrett and Greene's full Q&A with Mathematica's Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker is available here: https://bit.ly/3kliU1S

As states and counties grapple with containing the spread of COVID-19, they have learned that the virus places novel demands on contact tracing efforts. Early experiences from states with contact tracing programs suggest that a successful contact tracing program needs to account for the economic circumstances of people infected, as well as their families; it needs to account for the emotional and psychological ramifications of learning you and your loved ones are at risk of infection; it also needs to account for contextual and community factors, such as trust in government, household members' immigration status, language, and culture, that could be barriers to reaching the very populations most at-risk of contracting the disease. On this episode of On the Evidence, four guests discuss emerging lessons from states and localities on conducting effective and equitable contact tracing for COVID-19. This episode is an abridged and edited version of a webinar hosted by Mathematica on Aug. 21. The guests are: • Sandra Hernández, president and chief executive officer, California Health Care Foundation • Candace Miller, senior researcher, Mathematica • Elizabeth Odell, director of medical operations, La Clínica de La Raza, Inc. • Marina Pravdic, manager, communications, policy and advocacy, The Rockefeller Foundation The wide-ranging discussion covers the following topics: • how contact tracing for COVID-19 is different from past contact tracing efforts for other infectious diseases; • how a jurisdiction should measure the operational effectiveness of a contact tracing program; • what states and localities are doing to incorporate equity into their contact tracing programs; and • what role philanthropy can play in supporting contact tracing.